Jeff Doten's Venusian Blog

John Carter of Mars Movie News from Jim Hill Media. Read the whole thing here - Jim Hill Media But here's the juicey stuff -" suggest that what Andrew Stanton supposedly told the staff at Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. back in October of last year is true. That Disney / Pixar definitely is gearing up to do a trilogy of films based on the "John Carter of Mars" books. According to what Mouse House insiders recently told me, Mark Andrews (i.e. the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "Ratatouille") has allegedly already completed a first pass on a screenplay for the first film in the proposed "Mars" series. And given that both Pixar and Disney execs have reportedly responded very enthusiastically to Andrews' script ... Well, both companies are now anxious to put this project in the development pipeline ASAP. "So what sort of timetable are we talking about here?," you ask. Well, really serious work on the first "Mars" movie can't ge...

Chris Mills, writer of the amazing Perils on Planet X ! has very kindly posted about The Fire Gods of Venus on his blog. Perils is a Burrough's /Flash Gorden/Buck Rogers kinda thing and I like it. Be sure to check out the blog, the site and the work of the illustrator, the inspiring Gene Gonzales .

This mornings offering is a color study for a painting for the interior of TFOV and ( once I realized I didn't have one ) a (loose) study of a yarrie. What is a Yarrie ? It is a two headed Venusian Predator that often hunt in packs, but are also cannibals. Their mode if attack is stab their prey's body with their conical skulls, removing cylinders of flesh for their pleasure.

Oh happy day ! I have been in contact with the producers of Edgar Rice Burroughs " Pirates of Venus" for over a year. Recently my my artwork has been accepted as part of the upcoming Pirates of Venus live action movie. That means it is being use as early promo and concept work. The full book of art I sent them ( and printed through apple's iPhoto ) seemed to do the trick. - Jeff

A quick update that answers the crucial question of just what a Paijoma looks like under it's clothes. This also is my design that incorporates a more upright stance. The Paijoma can still crouch in the manner that I've illustrated them before, but it looks pretty ungainly for just walking around. And buying groceries is just crazy when you can't even reach past the spread of your legs....

Morning Star - the human village on Venus. Yup, a little heritage style town, and no I'm not going go say why. To the right is one of the largest buildings in Morning Star, the Hunter's Hall. Sort of a ranch house. The shield shape hanging off the balcony is the skull of a Curvim, the beastie that the Hunter's hunt. The buildings of Morning Star are built in as familiar a form as possible to create a familiar homey environment. The major exception to this being the roofing material, a shell like form that protects from fiery Draf Falls.

I freaked Super Girl out. So this last weekend I went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment con. I'd never been, and was really impressed. There were lots of people and it was really well organized. I had a few prints to sell and lots of promo stuff on The Fire Gods of Venus. It was kind of a 'pre-pimping' the book. It was an excellent change to talk to a lot of people and give out a lot of promo cards. I did learn a couple of things. Saying that The Fire Gods of Venus was 'kinda like John Carter of Mars meets the Doors' means squat to anyone under 30. So my catch phrase of the book as 'A Psychedelic, Post Modern, Interplanetary Adventure' means about the same. Granted, I really like that phrase, and perhaps combined with an actual book description, it might work. I can't believe I didn't have one, but I wasn't really ready to write the back of the book blurb. But a lot of people asked, 'what's it about ?' So this is what I came up...